Ranking Method

The ranking system requires the rater to rank his subordinates on overall perfor
mance. This consists in simply putting a man in a rank order. Under this method,
the ranking of an employee in a work group is done against that of another empl
oyee. The relative position of each employee is tested in terms of his numerical
rank. It may also be done by ranking a person on his job performance against an
other member of the competitive group.
Advantages of Ranking Method
Employees are ranked according to their performance levels.
It is easier to rank the best and the worst employee.
Limitations of Ranking Method
The whole man is compared with another whole man in this method. In practice, it is
very difficult to compare individuals possessing various individual traits.
This method speaks only of the position where an employee stands in his group. I
t does not test anything about how much better or how much worse an employee is
when compared to another employee.
When a large number of employees are working, ranking of individuals become a di
fficult issue.
There is no systematic procedure for ranking individuals in the organization. Th
e ranking system does not eliminate the possibility of snap judgements.
Forced Distribution method
This is a ranking technique where raters are required to allocate a certain perc
entage of rates to certain categories (eg: superior, above average, average) or
percentiles (eg: top 10 percent, bottom 20 percent etc). Both the number of cate
gories and percentage of employees to be allotted to each category are a functio
n of performance appraisal design and format. The workers of outstanding merit m
ay be placed at top 10 percent of the scale, the rest may be placed as 20 % good
, 40 % outstanding, 20 % fair and 10 % fair.
Advantages of Forced Distribution
This method tends to eliminate raters bias
By forcing the distribution according to pre-determined percentages, the problem
of making use of different raters with different scales is avoided.
Limitations of Forced Distribution
The limitation of using this method in salary administration, however, is that i
t may lead low morale, low productivity and high absenteeism.
Employees who feel that they are productive, but find themselves in lower grade(
than expected) feel frustrated and exhibit over a period of time reluctance to w
ork.
Critical Incident techniques
Under this method, the manager prepares lists of statements of very effective an
d ineffective behaviour of an employee. These critical incidents or events repre
sent the outstanding or poor behaviour of employees or the job. The manager main
tains logs of each employee, whereby he periodically records critical incidents
of the workers behaviour. At the end of the rating period, these recorded critic
al incidents are used in the evaluation of the worker s performance. Example of a
good critical incident of a Customer Relations Officer is : March 12 - The Offic
er patiently attended to a customers complaint. He was very polite and prompt in
attending the customers problem.
Advantages of Critical Incident techniques
This method provides an objective basis for conducting a thorough discussion of
an employees performance.
This method avoids recency bias (most recent incidents are too much emphasized)
Limitations of Critical Incident techniques
Negative incidents may be more noticeable than positive incidents.
The supervisors have a tendency to unload a series of complaints about the incid
ents during an annual performance review sessions.
It results in very close supervision which may not be liked by an employee.
The recording of incidents may be a chore for the manager concerned, who may be
too busy or may forget to do it.
Checklists and Weighted Checklists
In this system, a large number of statements that describe a specific job are gi
ven. Each statement has a weight or scale value attached to it. While rating an
employee the supervisor checks all those statements that most closely describe t
he behaviour of the individual under assessment. The rating sheet is then scored
by averaging the weights of all the statements checked by the rater. A checklis
t is constructed for each job by having persons who are quite familiar with the
jobs. These statements are then categorized by the judges and weights are assign
ed to the statements in accordance with the value attached by the judges.
Advantages of Checklists and Weighted Checklists
Most frequently used method in evaluation of the employees performance.
Limitations of Checklists and Weighted Checklists
This method is very expensive and time consuming
Rater may be biased in distinguishing the positive and negative questions.
It becomes difficult for the manager to assemble, analyze and weigh a number of
statements about the employees characteristics, contributions and behaviours.